Seaport Security Evaluated

A new federal commission on seaport security arrived Monday at Port Everglades, where local authorities are finally taking steps to close the port to cargo thieves and drug traffickers.

The Interagency Commission on Crime and Security in U.S. Seaports has begun a one-year mission to study the nation's major ports and make recommendations on how to shut them down to terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals. Port Everglades is the first stop on the new commission's tour. The Port of Miami, also known for drug trafficking and cargo theft, is next.

The commission's working group, composed of senior officials in the FBI, Customs Service, Treasury Department and other agencies, will spend a week at Port Everglades. They will meet with shipping company executives, labor leaders, Sheriff's Office officials and others involved in the port's business.

As far as port leaders are concerned, it's a good thing the commission didn't show up a year ago. The commission would have found a port embarrassed by the arrest of more than two dozen dockworkers, security guards and others for helping drug traffickers move cocaine and marijuana off the docks. They would have found unfenced cargo yards and parking areas. They would have found shipping and stevedoring company executives arguing with law enforcement officials about tightening security, and the county arguing with federal authorities over who should pay for it.

Now the port is taking steps to tighten up. No one claims that the drug traffic has stopped, but port officials say they've made life more difficult for the traffickers. They showed some changes during a tour, by bus and tugboat.

Just south of the Broward County Convention Center, a chain-link fence stands between the road and a cargo yard by the docks. In the past, anyone who worked at the port could walk into the yard. Today, dockworkers must pass a background check to get there. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime in the past five years can't get one. Of the 5,500 workers who went through the checks, about 45 were disqualified, said Jeff Brown, the port's public-safety director.

When the bus carrying federal officials rumbled under the gantry cranes at the southern end of the port on Monday, Brown pointed out the location of the old employee parking areas. Just last year, they could park at a fence by the docks, making life simple for workers involved in cargo theft or drug smuggling.

"We found many holes in the fence," Brown said. "We found the fence lifted by what appeared to be forklifts."

Since then, the port has built three remote employee parking lots, where workers park before walking through a pedestrian gate to their jobs."We want to keep workers and their cars and their work areas separate," Brown said.

More security measures are in the works. Two of the three major roads into the port, currently open to anyone, will be blocked by guardhouses and security gates. Electronic gates will block smaller areas within the port. Closed-circuit cameras will sweep the docks and cargo yards.

The bill for all this will be $5 million to $7 million. Of that amount, $4.7 million has been funded by the county, state and federal government, Brown said.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshlersun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.